Hold fast

"Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden. – Revelation 2v24

There were some issues at Thyatira. Though the church is commended for some good things they has a allowed a dreadful false teacher to creep in. Jesus here calls her ‘Jezebel.’ Her teaching was that it was acceptable to practice sexual immorality and to seat foods that had been sacrificed to idols. The Thyatirans had allowed her to carry on with the false teaching. Jesus words for her and her followers were very clear – they would be judged severely if they did not repent.

A few folks however remained faithful. They held on and would not accept her teachings. To them Jesus simply said ‘hold fast until I get there.’

At first those do not appear to be very encouraging words. ‘I know its tough, but you need to hold on till I get there.’ That means that those who live in the midst of error have quite a job to do. It would be a lot easier if Jesus would just wipe out the false teachers. That is not how He made us though. People have a free will. We are free to make choices. He never promised to provide a way out of all this stuff. Sometimes He just wants us to hold on.

We have all been there. We have all had times when all we can do is to hold on by our fingertips and wait it out. The wonderful truth is that we don’t have to do that by ourselves. Jesus is our strength and our power. He is right here by our sides holding us up as we ‘hold fast’ to the truth.

In the midst of this wicked and perverse generation we too must ‘hold fast’ till He comes again.